Commonism: A marriage of libertarian ideas

ive been pushing and pulling ideas around in my head. i am really pretty amateur in my theory but i am enthusiastic. ive come up with an idea that i wanna throw out on here for criticism.

Commonism - A libertarian communist strain that stresses democratic confederalism as a structural vehicle for the eventual establishment of a liberated, communist social order worldwide, stressing continual deconstruction therein until communism is reality. mixes some Marxist analysis of capitalism in there, etc, etc.

yes ive seen it used for that. simply put, im taking the word and using it for something else. and yeah i'll babble a little more coherent when im not using this blasted device. maybe i should think a little more. specifically DemCon? maybe not. not as applied thus far. do you get what im pointing at though?

i think what i mean is like using direct democracy and municipal, local, horizontal organizing as kind of an initial gateway to libertarian communism. like idk i get really worked up thinking about how to get regular folks completely unfamiliar with the idea on board. like how do we introduce something so "radical"? i feel some of the things with DemCon are a very good gateway to LibCom and that those two things as separate strains are not entirely different but have different focuses, different philosophical origins

The reference to ''democratic confederalism' also presumably refers to the theory developed in later life by Murray Bookchin and much criticised in relation to it's supposed practical application in 'Rojava'.

Bookchin developed what he initially called 'libertarian municipalism', but later on, he abandoned that label and re named his theory 'Communalism'. Ocalan invented 'democratic confederalism', and claimed it took from and superseded both the classical anarchist tradition and Bookchin's Communalism. Although I'm not sure what significant differences exist between the two, since I haven't really bothered reading the texts of Ocalan, and it's been quite a while since I have read any of Bookchin's works championing his own theory.

As for 'commonism'; perhaps Thunaraz could explain how it differs from the above two? So far it sounds like a re branding of either of those. Or you could explain why and how you see it as more valuable than other tendencies such as anarcho-syndicalism for example.

i think what i mean is like using direct democracy and municipal, local, horizontal organizing as kind an initial gateway to libertarian communism. like idk i get really worked up thinking about how to get regular folks completely unfamiliar with the idea on board. like how do we introduce something so "radical"?

This is the question all of us are struggling with. It's great that you're searching for answers. I don't think any of us can really be sure what to do. In the past, the main gateway has been organizing class-struggle, mainly at work but also in other spaces.

So you're right that when people have direct experience with organizing that involves horizontal, directly democratic decision making, this can be a gateway to libertarian-communism. I think it's best when this experience with direct democracy is also merged with class struggle. That helps widen the gateway even further, plus you get to win a few things along the way!

I'm still not quite sure what you're proposing. But I would argue that when encouraging local, horizontal organizing, this should be in the context of class struggle.

That said, I still want to know what your idea is. Tho I agree with everyone else that so far it sounds a lot like Bookchin or Ocalan.

We cannot use that in Spain, as it is used by Barcelona En Comú - Los Comunes / the Commons, which is socio-liberalism. Some people inside come from social movements and from the political space of autonomy (Toni Negri) and are familiar to these thesis you present. However, as a political party the have fall down in the same structural problems as any other left-wing party.

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